Seahawks, Steelers took different paths after Super Bowl

For Seahawks fans, today’s game in Pittsburgh is sure to bring up memories of Super Bowl XL.

For current Seahawks players, however, that Super Bowl is simply a game that most of them watched on TV.

While that game may not feel like ancient history, a lot has changed in Seattle since then, in particular the Seahawks’ roster. Only two players remain from Seattle’s only Super Bowl team, cornerback Marcus Trufant and linebacker Leroy Hill, and the Seahawks have changed head coaches twice since the 2005 season while also bringing in a new general manager.

“It is kind of weird,” said Trufant, Seattle’s longest-tenured player. “It seems like it happened so fast, too. I remember back in my first couple of years when I was one of the younger guys on the team, and now I’m one of the older guys and I’ve been here the longest, so it is a little bit different.”

The team lining up across the field from the Seahawks, however, will look plenty familiar to anyone who remembers Super Bowl XL. While the Seahawks have undergone a major rebuild, the Steelers have kept a veteran core intact and continued their winning ways. Pittsburgh went 8-8 and missed the playoffs in 2006, but since then the Steelers have made the playoffs in three of their four seasons under Mike Tomlin, and gone to the Super Bowl twice, winning it once.

“We’ve changed a whole lot more than they have,” said Hill, who started Super Bowl XL as a rookie. “I don’t know how many they have left, but I still see a lot of the same faces from that Super Bowl team. They’ve still got their core guys and they’re a solid team. We’ve had some down seasons and a couple different head coaches, so it just comes with the territory.”

The Steelers have 17 players on their 53-man roster who were on that 2005 team, including nine who started that Super Bowl. Pittsburgh’s starting lineup includes 12 players from that team. The Steelers have the oldest roster in the NFL. Pittsburgh is particularly experienced on defense, where eight of 11 starters are 30 or older. In fact, seven of Pittsburgh’s defensive starters are older than guard Robert Gallery, Seattle’s oldest starter on either side of the ball.

The Seahawks won’t look at Pittsburgh’s age and expect it to create an advantage this week. Despite a poor performance in Week 1, the Seahawks have a lot of respect for the Steelers’ veteran defense, which is led by longtime defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.

“They have a bunch of players that have been there a long time,” Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said. “There are veteran players. You can keep going back years and years and years and you keep seeing the same guys in there, so they understand the scheme very well, they know the whys and what fors of all their spots and where they need to be.”

LeBeau is a big reason the Steelers have managed to stay so consistently good on defense and maintain a high level of play even after head coach Bill Cowher stepped down after the 2006 season.

“It’s been an awesome marriage for us,” Tomlin said.

But where the Steelers found consistency and even another Super Bowl win following Super Bowl XL, it has been a struggle for the Seahawks. Seattle did manage two more division titles and two more first-round wins following its Super Bowl season, but that was followed by four and five-win seasons.

• The Seahawks placed defensive end Dexter Davis on injured reserve and re-signed cornerback Kennard Cox.

Davis had been suffering from a hip injury that kept him sidelined periodically throughout training camp. He played in the team’s opener in San Francisco last weekend but didn’t practice all week.

Cox appeared in 11 games for the Seahawks in 2010, primarily as a special teams standout.